Rolling Stone Scan

[ofyourdeath.livejournal.com]

Stripped Down, Cranked Up: My Chemical Romance Return
By Gavin Edwards

Album TBD
Due Out Spring
Producer Brendan O'Brien





Chemical Brothers Gerard Way with Bryar, Mikey Way, and Iero in L.A.


Early in the recording of My Chemical Romance's fourth album, the band gave mixer Rich Costey a preview. "Everything he heard was just noise and spitting," remembers singer Gerard Way.

Taken aback, Costy asked, "What are these songs?"

"They're protest songs," Way told him. "It's the sound of 'no.'" Only later did Way realize exactly what he was protesting: "I was protesting us."

After a grueling tour behind 2006's The Black Parade, MCR were worn out and fed up. "I thought the band was going to break up," says guitarist Frank Iero. "I was expecting a call from Gerard saying, 'We can't do it anymore.'" Instead, they took a year off and changed managers. This past February, they went into the old A&M studios in L.A. with Pearl Jam producer Brendan O'Brien.

"The plan was to knock it out and not to overthink it," says drummer Bob Bryar. They expected to be done by April, but the record ended up taking all year. The goal, Way says, was to drop the theatricality of The Black Parade - which had lots of Floyd-ian pomp and a Liza Minnelli cameo - and "to harness everything that's great about this band into shorter songs. Almost protopunk, like the Stooges or the MC5."

The song that pushed them in the right direction was "Trans Am." It begins with the lyric "I got a bulletproof heart" and then stomps through four minutes of fist-pumping rock.

With that new direction - impassioned but melodic - MCR put aside the noisier material they had been working on and wrote a new batch of songs: the fast-and-dirty "Still Alive," the anthemic "The Only Hope for Me Is You" and the super-catchy "Death Before Disco" (featuring the chorus "Everybody pay attention to me"). "We simply embraced rock & roll and where we're from," Way says. "We learned how to be an American rock band instead of a British rock band."

On an October afternoon in L.A., MCR are polishing the album. There's only a month or two of work left: some mixing, some overdums, and sequencing. Today, Way is working on that pivotal cut, "Trans Am" - which he thinks would be enhanced by "1.2 seconds of Queen."

So he warms up his vocal cords, slips on some headphones, and asks, "Can I get a little bit of reverb? Yeah, it's a crutch." Then he sings, "These pigs are after me, after you" a dozen times, creating a "Bohemian Rhapsody" harmony. His performance is sylized, almost like a yodel. With a grin, he announces, "When I start sounding teenage-girlish, that's the sweet stuff."

Way's in a good mood, and not just because he's almost done with the record. In 2007, he married Lyn-Z (bassist for the band Mindless Self Indulgence); this May, they had a baby girl, Bandit. Way took two weeks off and came back to work "like a zombie, long hair and unshaven." But fatherhood gave him a new perspective on his lyrics, which focused on despair and death. "I wasn't writing a record about becoming a dad, and I wasn't writing a record for my baby girl, but I was writing a record for the person that she would turn into when she was 15, if anything ever happened to me."


Thank you tabula_x_rasa!

Comments

[quirkyblah38.livejournal.com]

Bob! :D

[ciel-vert.livejournal.com]

"I wasn't writing a record about becoming a dad, and I wasn't writing a record for my baby girl, but I was writing a record for the person that she would turn into when she was 15, if anything ever happened to me."

Geraaaard. ♥______;

That said, I'm really REALLY fucking glad Frank never got that phone call.

[beck-rocks.livejournal.com]

"I thought the band was going to break up," says guitarist Frank Iero. "I was expecting a call from Gerard saying, 'We can't do it anymore.'

D: D: D: D: D: D:


"I wasn't writing a record about becoming a dad, and I wasn't writing a record for my baby girl, but I was writing a record for the person that she would turn into when she was 15, if anything ever happened to me."
♥____♥


ty!

[strobelighted.livejournal.com]

"They're protest songs," Way told him. "It's the sound of 'no.'" Only later did Way realize exactly what he was protesting: "I was protesting us."


LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[spuzz.livejournal.com]

That is just ridiculous, Gerard. RIDICULOUS.

[heartsdesire456.livejournal.com]

BOB!!!

*breaks out Bob Icon*

[hazysea.livejournal.com]

"When I start sounding teenage-girlish, that's the sweet stuff."

THAT MAN GIRL ♥____♥

[kayteaface.livejournal.com]

A HQ version of that pic is so needed, unf *-*

[yekith.livejournal.com]

Yes, please. That pic is pure LOVE.

[spuzz.livejournal.com]

HELLO PICTURE. JFC.

[fleurdeliser.livejournal.com]

IAWTC. *________*

[mistersandbox.livejournal.com]

BOBBBB &hearts!

But fatherhood gave him a new perspective on his lyrics, which focused on despair and death.
lol irl

[yekith.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU! Good week, good week.

Uh...the where Frank says he thought they'd break up gave me the chills. Good to hear this now when they're happily making an album!

[smashfantastic.livejournal.com]

"We learned how to be an American rock band instead of a British rock band."

now officially more excited for this CD than I have been in months! TBP is great and all, but not something I'd listen to regularly anymore. In my head, MCR's like, "CHANGE CHANGE CHANGE, motherfuckers!"

[barmy-bunk.livejournal.com]

♥BOB♥

[bebunny.livejournal.com]

seconded!

[bluefuzzyelf.livejournal.com]

So most of this results in me going: !!!!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D *haaaaaaaaands*

But. But. "Instead, they took a year off and changed managers. WHAT. WHAT.

[fleurdeliser.livejournal.com]

Brian is currently pursuing a career as a stuntman. No I am not kidding about that. He is actualfax training to be a stuntman in movies.

[patentpending.livejournal.com]

Lol at them pretending to look like they are working.

[acute.livejournal.com]

There are way too many ♥'s in this post.

"like a zombie, long hair and unshaven." want to make joke about how he can't grow a beard, mind blanking.

[lupilups.livejournal.com]

There are no such thing as ''too many ♥s'' when BCB is involved, you silly.

[lupilups.livejournal.com]

[mcrnut.livejournal.com]

I really can't focus on the other guys. Gerard's posing so hard.

[bittersweetrick.livejournal.com]

I know, right? I wanted to take the pic seriously and pay attention to everyone else, but then Gerard posing had an encounter with my eyes and I started to LMAO. It was epic.

[jazzy.livejournal.com]

The weird thing about Frank's statement is all my friends and I were saying the same thing. We were 95% sure they were going to break up and just had the worst fucking feeling after the MSG show. We were absolutely convinced about it and part of me is glad to know our thoughts weren't completely without merit but the rest of me is so fucking glad we were wrong.

[suckmyglock.livejournal.com]

For those of us who weren't at the show, why did you think that? What was it about the way they were acting?

[valmontheights.livejournal.com]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBBBBBBB!!!

[nahemaraxe.livejournal.com]

BOB! :D

[fleurdeliser.livejournal.com]

I was waiting for this comment to appear. :D

[wewontbite.livejournal.com]

I think ill add one more BAWBBBBB


BOBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
<333333

[bebunny.livejournal.com]

You know like, they're all posing for the pic...Ray's doing some actual work somewhere.

[yekith.livejournal.com]

From what I understood, Ray's in New jersey because of his dog that's sick.

[youlackcolor.livejournal.com]

omg, what Gerard said about Bandit. and BOB. I hope Bob's okay after everything that happened with Dixie.

BUT WHERE IS RAY
AND BRIAN

[concretecutouts.livejournal.com]

omg bob